Child Development

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This article from The Washington Post reports the increase of 4-year old preschoolers in the United States in 2014. A nationwide map is also shown to represent the percentage of 4-year old preschools enrolled in State funded preschool programs and preschools by each State in 2014. Top states mentioned are Vermont (91 percent) and Florida (80 percent) along with Texas and Oklahoma with more than 40 percent of preschoolers enrolled.

Students and schools are embracing the healthier lunches offered through the National School Lunch Program that, together with the healthier breakfasts offered through the School Breakfast Program beginning this school year and the “Smart Snacks in School” nutrition standards continue to shepherd our children on the path towards future health and happiness. This article congratulates six states: Florida, Montana, Oklahoma, North Carolina, South Carolina and Colorado for meeting national guidelines.

The Birth to 5 website is a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As noted at the website, "Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive! is a coordinated federal effort to encourage healthy child development, universal developmental and behavioral screening for children, and support for the families and providers who care for them."

The Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR) serves as a central resource of information and products to the community of Parent Training Information (PTI) Centers and the Community Parent Resource Centers (CPRCs), so that they can focus their efforts on serving families of children with disabilities.

The Child Care and Early Education Research Connections promotes high quality research in child care and early education and the use of that research in policy making. Research Connections is a partnership among the National Center for Children in Poverty at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University; the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research at the Institute for Social Research, the University of Michigan; and the Child Care Bureau, Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

This website provides comprehensive information on child development, psychology, parenting, learning, health and safety as well as childhood disorders such as attention deficit disorder, dyslexia and autism.

The Preschool for All initiative will improve quality and expand access to preschool, through a partnership with all 50 states, to provide all low- and moderate-income four-year-olds with high-quality preschool, while encouraging states to serve additional four-year-olds from middle-class families. The initiative also promotes access to full-day kindergarten and high-quality early education programs for children under age four. The U.S. Department of Education will allocate dollars to states based their share of four-year olds from low- and moderate-income families and funds would be distributed to local school districts and other partner providers to implement the program.

This link is to FindYouthInfo.gov. As noted at its website, it "was created by the Interagency Working Group on Youth Programs (IWGYP), which is composed of representatives from 12 Federal agencies that support programs and services focusing on youth." Topics addressed include bullying, positive youth development, transition age youth, and after school programs.

This book is a comprehensive resource that focuses on the scientific study of child development and how environmental factors impact early learning. It provides a synthesis of the research of child development and early learning. The books target audience is early childhood leaders and policy makers.

Healthy Child Care America program's goal is to educate child care providers about evidence-based health and safety practices. It is sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics with support from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau and the Child Care Bureau.

This resource is the second in the Cornerstones: An Early Literacy Series publications which are based on the findings of the National Early Literacy Panel about early literacy development. It emphasizes the importance of language development in the PreK years and the connection to learning to read.

This link to the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child webiste provides information on early childhood and early brain development. As noted at the website "the Council is a multi-disciplinary, multi-university collaboration designed to bring the science of early childhood and early brain development to bear on public decision-making."

The National Technical Assistance Center for Children's Mental Health helps states, tribes, territories, and communities discover solutions that improve the social, emotional, and behavioral well being of children and families.

According to U.S. Secretary of Education, John B. King Jr., “Ensuring kids actually make it to school is a vital part of leveling the playing field. Just missing a couple of days of school a month can mean the difference between dropping out and graduating on time. Absences add up." With the goal of eliminating chronic absenteeism, the U.S. Department of Education, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and the Ad Council partnered to create a public service campaign, Absences Add Up. This U.S. DOE press release provides absenteeism research as well as online resource for parents to help ensure their children attend school each day.

In FY 2016, the Institute initiated a new grant program, Research Networks Focused on Critical Problems of Policy and Practice, to focus resources and attention on education problems or issues that are high priority for the nation, and to create both a structure and process for researchers who are working on these issues to share ideas, build new knowledge, and strengthen their research and dissemination capacity. The Supporting Early Learning From Preschool Through Early Elementary School Grades Network (Early Learning Network) will examine why many children—especially children from low-income households or other disadvantaged backgrounds—experience academic and social difficulties as they begin elementary school.

To combat chronic absenteeism, the U.S. Department of Education, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, and the Ad Council have partnered to create a public service campaign, Absences Add Up. The campaign features a series of digital and out of home PSAs that drive parents to this webs www.absencesaddup.org. Via this website, parents are empowered with information and resources to help ensure their children attend school each day.